Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Can You Hear Me Now??

Staying Connected

One of the many challenges of cruising is staying connected to friends and family via phone calls, emails, skype (or other VOIP), and social networking.  AT&T and, perhaps, other phone carriers, have an arrangement with Bahamas Telephone Company (Batelco) that allows visitors to use their stateside phones while in the islands.  While a nice convenience, this is actually an expensive option and one that few long-term cruisers use.  Instead, many of us opt for suspending our stateside accounts and signing up with Batelco service.  An unlocked phone or iPad is all that’s needed to use their data cards; and, if we all stayed in Nassau, this post would end right here.  But we don’t, so it doesn’t. 

Bar Hopping

Having a tech-savvy husband on board is very handy when navigating the shifting sands of connectivity.  I consider myself lucky as I am on a strictly need-to-know basis when it comes to how my magical iPad connects to the world beyond.  Now that Jeanette is enrolled in an online program, though, I have been forced to reach past the bounds of my comfort zone (think paper and pencil, cards and stamps).  I now know that if no wifi is available, the phone signal needs to be at least 3 bars (preferably 4) to connect to Jeanette’s program.  As such, our route planning now includes estimating the number of bars we might be able to obtain at each island so that we can run J’s school off the phone, if needed.  Surprisingly, we’ve been able to make this work, even as we travel in and out of no service zones.  Sometimes it requires a little ingenuity, like running the phone up a halyard to the top of the mast.  Other times, we just need to implement our wifi booster – again, running it up a halyard to maximize receptivity.  Once, Jeanette completed a discussion-based assessment with one of her teachers while reclining on top of the boom for the best reception.  A little unorthodox, perhaps, but it works.
School happens whenever there's a connection

Preparing the iPhone for height

Flag halyard serves double duty

Hello? Hello? Can you hear me Joe???

Just because we have a cell phone with 3 bars of service doesn’t mean that it always works.  Something strange seems to happen when placing a call and, frequently, the call is incomplete or diverted to a different number or the person on the other end can’t hear us.  A couple of weeks ago when my brother called me for my birthday, I found myself in the middle of a Dr. Seuss dialogue:  "Hello? Hello? Can you hear me Joe??"  Skype (video) is blocked by the Bahamian Telecom company but we have managed to complete a couple of calls using Google Talk over the internet.  Though we receive cell phone calls with no charge, calling the USA is expensive so we only use the phone when necessary.  Social networking is almost out of the question. We easily receive Facebook notifications via email, but logging into FB uses up data due to all the pictures on it. In the Bahamas, we rarely use FB unless we have a strong wifi signal.  Private messages, comments, and inquiries can go unanswered for long periods of time until we are connected once again and have bandwidth to spare.    
Jeanette completing an oral assessment with her teacher

Channel Surfing

Compared to the frustrations of phones and wifi, communicating with other cruisers is a breeze.  With a Single Side Band radio (SSB), a Very High Frequency radio (VHF), and a satellite messenger (via our tracker), we have 3 reliable ways to be in touch with other boaters and receive messages from home.  On a day-to-day basis, we rely almost exclusively on VHF radio for our communications.  Using the VHF has meant learning a new vocabulary along with radio etiquette.  “Working channel,” “Copy that,” “Roger,” “Over,” “Break,” and “Up one,” are terms that have worked their way into everyday parlance.  Jeanette, especially, fumbles when making the switch from VHF and sailor talk to phone conversations, where I frequently hear her say “copy that” to her teachers. 

In some ways, the VHF is like texting – conversations are typically short and to the point and oriented around plans for getting together.  No one wants to tie up a channel for long and if you do, you’re liable to get “stepped on” but another caller.  Some locales have taken over a specific channel.  For George Town, channel 68 is the community line for hailing other boaters and making general announcements.  Think “party line” for a couple hundred boats and you’ll have a good idea of what it’s like.  Our kid-boat caravan selected a separate channel so that we could communicate freely amongst ourselves and not have to listen in on irrelevant chatter.  After using the VHF for so long now, a phone seems almost inordinately complicated what with all the numbers, dial tones, call waiting, voicemails etc. Just hail me on the radio and we can talk while we walk the beach. 


  

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